Posts Tagged: Internal Controls

How do you lose $1.2 Billion?

Posted by & filed under Accounting Principles, Advanced Accounting, All Articles, Auditing, Cost Accounting, Financial Accounting, Financial Reporting and Analysis, Financial Statement Analysis, Fraud Accounting, IFRS, Intermediate Accounting, International Accounting, Managerial Accounting, Uncategorized, Video Updates.

Three of MF Global Holdings Ltd.’s top executives said they didn’t know what happened to as much as $1.2 billion in client funds that went missing in the days before the New York-based brokerage filed for bankruptcy. Jon S. Corzine, former chairman and chief executive officer of the broker testified in Congress that he didn’t… Read more »

The Volcker Rule

Posted by & filed under Accounting Principles, Advanced Accounting, All Articles, Auditing, Cost Accounting, Financial Accounting, Financial Reporting and Analysis, Financial Statement Analysis, Fraud Accounting, IFRS, Intermediate Accounting, International Accounting, Managerial Accounting, Uncategorized.

Regulators released a proposal on Oct. 11 known as the Volcker Rule, which is aimed at overhauling how the banking industry carries out its trading activity. The proposal, spanning about 300 pages, includes provisions that scrutinize how banks collect revenue, award compensation and track their compliance with the Volcker Rule. According to financial industry lawyers and lobbyists these will challenge… Read more »

Expensive Snacks?

Posted by & filed under Accounting Principles, Advanced Accounting, All Articles, Auditing, Cost Accounting, Financial Accounting, Financial Reporting and Analysis, Financial Statement Analysis, Fraud Accounting, IFRS, Intermediate Accounting, International Accounting, Managerial Accounting, Uncategorized, Video Updates.

By now you have probably heard that an audit of the Department of Justice by the Inspector General says that taxpayer money was wasted on overpriced food and drinks. At one conference, the DOJ spent $4200 on 250 muffins–that’s about $16 a muffin. But what did the report actually say? Considering the EOIR reported that… Read more »

Maybe he should have taken an accounting course?

Posted by & filed under Accounting Principles, Advanced Accounting, All Articles, Auditing, Cost Accounting, Financial Accounting, Financial Reporting and Analysis, Financial Statement Analysis, Fraud Accounting, IFRS, Intermediate Accounting, International Accounting, Managerial Accounting, Uncategorized.

Former Director Tom Wheeler is on trial, charged with several counts of fraud, misconduct in office and conspiracy. Wheeler has pleaded not guilty to the charges.  His defense focuses on his lack of experience, being a bad student in college, and not taking an accounting or law class. Questions: 1.  Why was Mr. Wheeler charged… Read more »

Does Embezzlement Pay?

Posted by & filed under Accounting Principles, Advanced Accounting, All Articles, Auditing, Cost Accounting, Financial Accounting, Financial Reporting and Analysis, Financial Statement Analysis, Fraud Accounting, IFRS, Intermediate Accounting, International Accounting, Managerial Accounting, Uncategorized.

Bradley Whitsell, chief accountant of SDN Communications in Sioux Falls, SD, pleaded guilty to mail fraud on Monday, August 22.  According to the U.S. Attorney’s office 46-year-old Whitsell used his various oversight positions to embezzle more than $392,000 over a 10 year period beginning in 2000. Whitsell could end up in prison for up to… Read more »

Family Week for SEC Actions (sort of)

Posted by & filed under Accounting Principles, Advanced Accounting, All Articles, Auditing, Cost Accounting, Financial Accounting, Financial Reporting and Analysis, Financial Statement Analysis, Fraud Accounting, IFRS, Intermediate Accounting, International Accounting, Managerial Accounting, Uncategorized.

Clayton Peterson, a member of the board of directors and chairman of the audit committee of Mariner Energy, Inc., and his son Drew Peterson, who worked as an investment adviser in Denver, Colorado, pleaded guilty to criminal insider trading charges and were named as defendants in an SEC suit. Clayton Peterson learned at board meetings… Read more »

Fraud in Medicare Part D

Posted by & filed under Accounting Principles, Advanced Accounting, All Articles, Auditing, Cost Accounting, Financial Accounting, Financial Reporting and Analysis, Financial Statement Analysis, Fraud Accounting, IFRS, Intermediate Accounting, International Accounting, Managerial Accounting, Uncategorized, Video Updates.

Crooks are taking advantage of lax oversight in Medicare’s Part D prescription-drug program to obtain highly addictive drugs including oxycodone, Ritalin, and methadone, according to results of a federal investigation. Pharmacies and other Medicare contractors are supposed to enter in a form a number that identifies prescribers. But in many cases, that information is being… Read more »

Dwelling House is no more

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A Pittsburgh woman has pleaded guilty to bank fraud and money laundering for taking advantage of an online glitch that enabled her to make $1.1 million in overdraft withdrawals. Forty-six-year-old Jammie Harris learned of the glitch from another woman. That woman was indicted in January on charges that she stole more than $900,000 from Dwelling… Read more »

Not too squeaky clean

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A suit called GSP Finance LLC v. KPMG LLC was filed on March 29 with GPS alleging that KPMG “was well aware of the desperate financial condition of Hicks Sports” — specifically, the Texas Rangers and Dallas Stars — when it was hired to conduct the ’08 audit. The suit says Hicks Sports Group suffered… Read more »

Where’s the paper trail?

Posted by & filed under Accounting Principles, Advanced Accounting, All Articles, Auditing, Cost Accounting, Financial Accounting, Financial Reporting and Analysis, Financial Statement Analysis, Fraud Accounting, IFRS, Intermediate Accounting, International Accounting, Managerial Accounting, Uncategorized, Video Updates.

As more and more Americans face mortgage foreclosure, banks’ crucial ownership documents for the properties are often unclear and are sometimes even bogus, a condition that’s causing lawsuits and hampering an already weak housing market. Docx, and companies like it, were recreating missing mortgage assignments for the banks and providing the “legally required signatures” of… Read more »